5 October 2012

AROUND the world, interesting buildings
are opened to the public as part of an architectural celebration called
Open House. In Dublin, however, the Civic Trust – a charity which protects
architectural heritage in Ireland – sparked controversy by opening its
doors to an Open House project sponsored by the embassy of Israel in
Dublin.

The event, attended by Ambassador Boaz Modai, encouraged members
of the public to send postcards to Tel Aviv which in itself is not
controversial. It was the fact that the event invitation claimed that
Tel Aviv was raised out of the sand. A number of eminent Irish
architects co-signed a letter to The Irish Times complaining that Tel
Aviv was in fact built on four Palestinian towns which were cleared in
what the Palestinians call "Al Nakba", translated as the catastrophe.

Some
of the signatories were joined by humans rights activists from trade
unions, academic institutions and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity
Campaign to demonstrate outside the Civic Trust.